It took them a few minutes to calm down from the sheer excitement that grew from what they had gotten their hands on. But once it did, they ended up just laughing for a while.
Trigger let out one last chuckle. "I'm sorry, but this is crazy how lucky we got."
"Well…I guess we're waiting a bit for some food then." Prez crossed her legs, then plopped down on the ground with a huff, gently folding the note and shoving it back into her breast pocket.
"Yep." Trigger smiled slightly, scratching his chin lightly as he stared at the door, still trying to process what just happened.
"Nothing to do at all."
"Mhmm…" He raised an eyebrow, glancing over at her.
She raised an eyebrow back. "Penny for your thoughts?"
He snorted lightly, shrugging as he did. "Just tired…"
"No thoughts? Head empty?" She grinned back.
"Shush."
"Never!"
Trigger chuckled lightly as he started to pace next to her. "Alright that's fair." He would never want her to shut up anyways, a quiet Prez was an upset Prez. Plus, he liked her smile too much.
She glanced up at him, eyebrow raised. "You alright?"
"Just…fidgety." He kept pacing.
"You sure you should be walking that much dude?"
"Huh?" He paused, glancing down at her.
She looked at him with concern in her eyes. "You're injured, remember?"
"Ah…" He glanced down at his leg. "Right, sorry…I'm just…" He sighed. "I guess I'm still trying to process everything that happened. I'm still panicking over the threat of being sent back to the IUN."
"Hey, we're not going anywhere, it looks like Bandog has our backs." She smiled and snorted. "Which I've got to say, I was not expecting him to have our backs this much."
"Eh…I kinda expected it. He may be an ass sometimes, but he has a good heart."
"Kinda like Champ?"
"Yeah, but in more of a friendly drill sergeant sorta way, like he's rough around the edges and he'll boss you around, but in the end he means well."
Prez nodded slowly. "Yeah…yeah…that makes sense."
"I mean, this isn't the first time he's worked around Clemens' orders. Hell he's done the same thing with McKinsey's orders too." He started to pace once more, lost in thought.
"What on earth do you think his end goal is then?" She watched him carefully.
He paused, "Maybe he just wants to go home?"
She pursed her lips, nodding slowly once more. "That's not a bad theory, I think all the guards here are going a little stir crazy."
He started to pace again, that was true, most of the guards here were rather tired of the 'constant stream of bullshit' as Avril puts it. They were, all in all, not happy with how they were treated, even sometimes being heard rooting for the Princess of Erusea. It was a known fact by now how little the guards actually cared about their jobs. To be fair, they had been shipped off to the middle of nowhere, just like the prisoners.
"I mean to be fair, they're treated pretty badly too, they don't have to worry about solitary sure, but they're still treated like shit." Prez leaned back slightly in her spot, she frowned slightly. "Actually…has anyone just…asked them?"
"The guards?"
"Yeah."
Trigger shook his head. "Not that I know of, Avril might have?" He shrugged, Avril was strange like that. Even though they were close with her, she liked to keep to herself sometimes, he could never find her when she was in one of those moods.
"I can't either." She shrugged as well.
He could tell she was being honest, it was a simple thing, sometimes Avril didn't want to be found. He nodded slowly at that, it was true, hell he didn't even know where her cell was.
Prez made a fist and brushed her thumb against her chin before making a peace sign with both hands and tapping her fingers together. She raised her eyebrow and then pointed to herself.
He froze for a moment, squinting at her. "Really?"
"Yeah, really." She chuckled. "I've asked a few times where her cell might be…Buuuut she blows me off or changes the subject every time."
"Wait what?!" He snickered. "Oh my god that's amazing."
"No! Don't encourage her!" She pouted at him, glaring slightly.
"She won't hear it from me." He grinned back at her.
She rolled her eyes, slightly smiling. "Fair…she's coming with us though."
Trigger squinted slightly, stopping his pacing to kneel down next to her, carefully putting most of his weight on his good leg. "What do you mean?"
"When we get out of here, she's coming with us. Same with Count, and Tabloid."
He raised an eyebrow. "Huh? You know something I don't?"
"Not exactly, I just know at some point, they'll have to say that we've worked off our crimes or whatever and let us go in some way shape or form."
He wondered what made her say that, he knew Wiseman was trying to move some stuff around so that he could end the operation here, or at least have it replaced with actual pilots who were wanting to take on such tough missions, at least that's what Trigger thought.
"I say that because that's how I feel it will go down."
"How you feel it will go down?"
"Mhmm, I got this gut feeling that this whole operation of McKinsey's is going to fall apart, and fall apart soon."
He chuckled, that was a weird way to put it.
"Hey!"
"Look, I'm just being…" Oh what was the word?
"Realistic?" She huffed.
"I guess yeah."
She frowned deeply, grumbling to herself.
They were quiet for a while.
"Wait…Trigger."
"Hmm?"
She looked him in the eye as her own sparkled. "What do you think our chances are of seeing Mister X again?"
He glanced at her slightly, slowly sucking in a breath as he bit his lip. Brownie's request…to swat that Mister X bastard out of the sky for her, would he ever get the chance to fulfill that? The last time he crossed Mister X…he put Prez in danger.
Her gaze softened slightly.
"Prez…" He swallowed his pride, he shoved down the heat of revenge, but… "we'll probably never see him again." there was something he couldn't hide from, a feeling in the pit of his stomach. As if he was full of guilt…for lying? Sure he wanted to take down Mister X, he wanted revenge for Brownie's death, but he didn't want to put that above keeping Prez safe.
She cleared her throat. "While it's sweet you worry about me, I'm a tough gal dude, you know this."
Trigger shook his head slightly and looked at her, squinting slightly. Had she been reading him that well, to understand everything he thought?
"Look call me superstitious, or dumb, or whatever you like, but I've been having these moments lately where I get this…nagging feeling at the back of brain. Like how you said we probably won't ever see Mister X again, I feel this…itchy void in the back of my thoughts, and I start thinking, you know…" She taps her chin in thought. "I feel like we're definitely going to see him again."
He squinted at her slightly. He…he knew what she was talking about.
"See! See!" She pointed at him as a smirk formed on her lips. "You've felt it too! I felt it last when we saw that airship! I had this feeling that it was involved with Crimson the moment I saw it, but I shoved it down and ignored it because I thought it was too crazy of an idea."
"No…I…had the same feeling…something felt. Off…or wrong."
"See! Exactly! So…" She scooted closer to him, her face just inches away from his.
He blushed slightly at the closeness.
"Do you think we're going to duel Mister X again, Trigger?"
He went to say no…he really did. But that feeling in his gut hit him like a stack of bricks, he could feel that they would have to deal with him again. He knew it, in the back of his mind, that they had hardly seen the last of Mister X, leader of Erusea's experimental squadron.
Prez smiled, leaning forward a little more. "Come on…say it."
He smiled back with a snort, he couldn't help it. "Yeah…I think we will."
"Then we better prepare, shouldn't we? I'll need to spend some more time training my G resistance if I can."
"Perhaps we can take the Wyvern out on a test run once Avril finishes up her repairs? I can hit some varied high-G turns for you to practice against?"
"That'll work perfectly dude." She grinned, reaching out and running a hand through his hair.
He shivered slightly at the small gesture.
"Thank you Trigger." She ruffled his hair, then slowly moved her hand away, leaning back. "You're a damn good friend by the way. Worrying about me like that."
He chuckled, rubbing his cheek to hide the blush. "Yeah…I try you know."
"I know…by the way, what was up with that…angry look you got when I mentioned Mister X?"
"Well…I had…a hell of a weird dream?"
Prez looked at him, eyes squinted slightly, but curiosity danced through them. "Weird how?"
"Very weird." He chuckled slightly. "I saw Brownie…"
"What?" Her eyes went wide. "Wait…Brownie? Your old best friend, who died in the war?"
"Yeah…She even seemed to know that she was dead, she accepted it."
"Wait what?!" She shook her head. "What kind of fucking painkillers did they have you on dude?!"
He laughed at that. "I dunno! But I'll say this, I don't mind it." He smiled.
"Eh? Why's that?" She tilted her head.
"Honestly…It was nice to see her…happy, alive, and free." He looked up slightly, lost in thought. "What was it you said at Champ's funeral?"
"May they fly forever?"
"No, no, not that exactly…the explanation of that?"
"Oh! You mean how my old Boss, Kaiser, had that belief that pilots have special place they go after they die?"
Trigger nodded, "A place where I pilots can fly with no worries, no pain, just freedom." He looked back at Prez, "I think that's where Brownie went…she…was so calm and accepting of how she had died. Hell, before she left she asked me to shoot down Mister X as a 'Going away present'. Like she just brushed it off!" He laughed. "I don't know if it was the painkillers, the stress, or if it really was a visit from her. But I will always remember it." He took a shaky breath. "Always…"
Prez smiled at him. "You really are something Trigger…Well god damn now I've got to get that training in!" She intwined her fingers together and stretched, cracking her knuckles as she did. "Gotta make sure Brownie's last wish is fulfilled, you know?"
His eyes widened. "You…You'd do that? For her? You only know her from what I've told you."
"Yeah…that's true…but she was your best friend dude…as your best friend, I have to do something…don't I?"
"I mean…I…I guess?"
Prez gently punched him in the shoulder. "You're supposed to say yes you dork. I'm sure Avril or Tabloid would say the same thing if they knew about all this." She grinned. "We've made some really good friends here."
"Yeah…we have…It's a good place to be…but…"
"What happens once we've 'Served our time?'" She finished his sentence, not even missing a beat.
He frowned slightly. "Yeah…thats where I don't know what to do next. I guess I'm still a little to used to be the one following orders, not giving them."
"Guess we better get used to that and plan some stuff out." She smiled at him. "Don't worry, we'll figure it out." She leaned forward a little more, their eyes met, as they each found themselves lost in thought.
"Look…are you two going to make out or what?" A gruff voice cut through the quiet cell. "I made a bet with High Roller and I don't intend on loosing that money."
"EH!?" Prez jumped to her feet suddenly, looking around.
Trigger quickly stood up, glancing toward the door that was left open. "Ah….Bandog." He just barely waved.
The AWACS operator slowly walked into the cell with a teasing grin. "Look if you're having a moment, I can come back later. I just wanted to drop off this." He held out two canteens, and a handful of breakfast bars.
Prez glared slightly, her eye twitching. "Man! How long had you been there?"
"Only a little while." He hands off the two canteens to Trigger, "Though I do agree with you Prez, you might want to start planing something out, things are being shaken up a bit. McKinsey has been on edge all day."
"Uh huh…" She frowned slightly, but carefully took the breakfast bars as they were handed to her. "Any idea when things will be fully shaken up?"
He shook his head. "No idea. But, I hope it's soon…I don't know what's going to happen either, but I know I want to try and stick with Spare Squadron as long as I can. Someone has to keep an eye on you guys." He chuckled. "Oh! And one more thing." He went back over to the open door.
Trigger squinted slightly. "If this is paperwork we need to do, I'll need a desk."
Bandog laughed. "Nah, nah, no paperwork. You get a pass on that hell for now." He picked up something that had been leaned against the wall, before walking over and placing it in Prez's hands.
"Eh? The guitar we have?" She looked down at it in awe, it was still missing a string, but she held it carefully.
"Yeah…everyone agreed since you're the only one who can play it, it's yours."
"Who's everyone in this case?" She chuckled slightly.
"The Guards, the inmates, me. Obviously not McKinsey, he doesn't need to know about this, he probably won't either." He chuckled slightly. "Anywho, you probably won't see me for a bit, I have a bunch of paperwork I need to take care of, but someone will be by to give you lunch and dinner." He waved slightly.
Trigger smiled. "Thanks Bandog, take care."
"Yeah dude," Prez nodded quickly. "Thank you!"
He nodded, smiling as he walked off, still leaving the door open.
Trigger smiled, the four four four air base was a really weird place, but, it had grown on him. He stumbled a bit, feeling weak. "Ah…shit…" He guessed it had taken a while for the adrenaline to finally die down. But not this long.
Between being chewed out by Clemens, chewing out Clemens, stealing his freaking password, the possibility of being locked up in solitary for an entire day, and add on everything else…
Well there was only one thing Trigger could do when things finally settled. He collapsed onto the single bed, then groaned in pain, letting go of the canteens so they could be next to the bed. Oh yeah, falling full force onto a bed that was stiff as concrete was not his smartest idea. But…
"Hey."
"Hmmm?" He didn't even look up as the exhaustion settled in. Things didn't make sense to him, he could handle combat every day of the week, but put him in a situation where he has to confront someone face to face and he just falls apart.
"There's only one bed dude."
He froze. His body going stiff as a board as his brain realized what he had done. She was completely right, there only was one bed, and it was small. Small enough that he barely fit on it, his feet currently hanging off the back. Well, he could just roll off later when they actually needed to sleep, so it shouldn't be to awkwa-
"And if you wanna share, we can share, but you gotta make some room."
Oh…Oh no what cruel god did he piss off this time? Prez…Fucking Robin 'President' Kuo is suggesting that they sha-…Wait. He turned his head fast enough to give him a bit of whiplash, looked her dead in the eye as she leaned close. "Do you?"
"Eh?" She tilted her head slightly.
"Do you want to share?" He tapped the bed, his face heating up.
Her mouth opened with a slight smile, then her eyes went wide, and she froze for half a second. Her face went a bit red, then she cleared her throat, covering her mouth with a closed fist. "Right, right…ummm…yeah…yeah…" She nodded slowly. "I guess we'll figure that out…later?"
He chuckled slightly. "Yeah…yeah…don't worry, I won't hog the bed the entire time, I just…need to just, lay down for a bit."
"Hmmm…that makes sense, we went through a lot back there huh?" Prez nodded, slowly turning around and sitting next to the bed, leaning against it. "Clemens is a real piece of work isn't he?" She started to strum the guitar, slowly tuning it as she did.
"Ohhh yeah, he certainly is. Though you definitely gave him a run for his money." he chuckled slightly. "How close were you to punching him?" His guess was she was about…three seconds from decking Clemens into next tuesday.
She giggled at that. "I mean you're not wrong." She grinned happily. "I really wanted to take that smug serious look off his face with my fist."
"But?"
"But…probably not the best idea at the time. Plus, I'd rather not go back to being in the IUN's custody." She shivered slightly. "That was not fun the first time, and I do not want to go back to them."
Trigger smiled at that. "I couldn't agree more." He guessed that was how it would be, he would always been the failed peacekeeper, he'd always be blamed for the escalation in the war, he would always be…
"My friend."
"Huh?" He glanced over at Prez, she was still facing away from him…so how did she?
"I know you too well dude."
He rolled his eyes. "Shush."Oh he could hear the satisfied smirk on her lips.
"Look…I said a while back, you'd be stuck with me. Guess what?"
"I'm stuck with you now?"
"Mhmmm, for a long, long time." She chuckled. "You're a damn good friend dude, I'm not loosing you."
He smiled. "Good…being stuck with each other, that sounds nice."
"Yeah…it does." She pick up a canteen and took a slow sip from it.
Trigger squinted slightly. "Wait...did Bandog say he made a bet on us making out?"
Prez spat out her drink of water, coughing as she did. "He did WHAT?!"
Avril huffed as she ripped a good sized panel off of a broken F-22.
"So…Why are we out here? There's a perfectly good Tomcat in the hangers you've been working on for a while, right? Why not give them that Avril?" Count huffed, crossing his arms.
"Because I haven't gotten the FCS working idiot." She shoved the panel into Counts arms, ignoring his yelp of surprise as it smacked into him and fell. "I'm not sending anyone, let alone Trigger and Prez into a mission without a functioning FCS, that's why I worked on your plane first dude."
Tabloid snickered to the side, coming over to help Count pick up the fuselage panel. "To be fair, she makes a good point dude."
He sighed. "Tabloid, don't you ever say to be fair in my presence again."
"No promises are made."
"Hmmm…" Avril started prying at another intact panel. "I wonder how this bird got here?"
"It was probably shot down."
Tabloid sighed rolled his eyes. "Really now Count? I just assumed someone parked it here and left it."
"Oh shut up." He growled back at the anarchist.
"Nah."
"Both of you shut up! And get that panel in the truck." Avril hefted a crowbar up, pointing it at the two pilots.
"Right!"
"Sure thing Avril! Whatever you say!"
She sighed as they both scampered away, "Mother of god have mercy, those two have been itching for more action since they got back." She gave the new panel another experimental pry, smiling as it started to give way. This F-22 was somehow missed, though she can see why. While it appeared intact, it was apparent something went wrong went it was shot down. It was heavily bent in the middle, as if someone had snapped it with their bare hands. Parts of it were salvageable, but the airframe was toast, a wing was missing along with both the tail wings. She was honestly surprised it hadn't fallen apart yet.
The wreck shuddered a bit.
"Well…Yet being the keyword huh?" She wiped the sweat from her brow, smiling as she gave the panel one last push.
It popped right off, falling to the ground with a clang.
Avril smiled, she still had that magic touch, she hoped she never lost it. She pulled out a flashlight to try and see inside, looking for anything of use. Perhaps FCS parts for her F-14 project. Sure she was behind schedule, but Bandog didn't give two shits. The moment she said she needed parts to repair the FCS, he told her to take as long as she needed. She'd even painted the whole thing black. Since that was still one of the only paints they could get their hands on now. "Stupid McKinsey, always trying to caus-"
A groan sounded out from the F-22.
Her eyes widened, she skipped back, stumbling over her bad leg and landing on her butt as she tried to get away.
A snap sounded out as the rear part of the plane finally broke off from the front. Electronics, scrap, and parts came spilling out like blood.
"Woah…that was close…"
"Avril!" Tabloid came running up, Count was right on his heals. "You okay?!" He reached a hand out to her.
She took it carefully lifting herself up, allowing Count to help her by wrapping an arm around his shoulder. "Yeah, yeah, the thing just finally gave way."
Count chuckled. "Scrap Queen done in by scrap, that would have been a hell of a story."
"Oh my god," She snorted, "I guess it would yeah." She gently elbowed him in the side. "Thanks for coming so quick though."
"You're welcome, although, are you sure you're okay?"
"I'm fine Tabloid!" She waved a hand as she let go of his. "Seriously, if anything there are just going to be a couple of scrapes, tha-" She squinted slightly at the wreck, moving away from Count.
"Umm…"
Something in the wreck looked familiar, she couldn't quite place it. It looked like…
"Avril? You there?" Count waved a hand in front of her face.
She grabbed it, gently putting it back at his side. "Hang on…" She moved towards the wreck, stepping over scrap and tools that were sprawled throughout the area. "Oh…" She quickly made her way into the new scrap pile. "No Way….no fucking way!" She laughed, she had never seen one of these in real life before, she had only ever heard about them in magazine articles. She quickly snatched up the metallic box, it was a little damaged, but nothing a bit of the old Avril magic couldn't fix…right? She giggled slightly, "Oh, this is exciting!"
Tabloid looked over her shoulder. "A box? That counts as…exciting?"
Count snorted. "It's not just a box…actually what exactly is that?"
She chuckled, she really couldn't stop herself, the possibilities were slim, but if she could get this working…even for one mission, it would be infinitely valuable. "This boys….is an amazing feat of engineering. This, is an AOA module."
Count looked confused, mouthing out the word with no recognition.
Tabloid's eyes widened. "Oh…Ohhhh no…Prez is going to be so fucking pissed."
A smaller chapter, I honestly felt that this was just a good ending. Rather than trying to cram more stuff in.
Though now we've got the wheels turning. Should only be one or two more chapters until we reach the next official mission.
And OH boy is that going to be a fun one. You can say that it's going to be a little Cold.
Oh and here is this chapter's official ASL translation: "Neither do I."
Either way, Holy SHIT the amount of views and favorites is Staggering to me. Thank you so much for all your support and comments. Always love reading your guy's comments. Thank you for reading! ^^